


The Thirteenth Year IV: Caught on Film

by reader1718



Series: The Thirteenth Year sequels [3]
Category: The Thirteenth Year (1999)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 13:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3251456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reader1718/pseuds/reader1718
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One day when Cody returns to land for the new school year, he finds out someone got a picture of him swimming off to be with his mother the previous year and has called the local newspaper. The newspaper is sending out a man to investigate the claim and validate the photo. So Cody must make sure no one suspects him of being anything but human and avoid leading the newspaper man right to him and his mother! However, time is short and the cameras are everywhere. Can Cody and his friends come up with a plan to convince the paper that merpeople don't exist without being caught themselves?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Thirteenth Year IV: Caught on Film

The Thirteenth Year IV: Caught on Film

One day Cody Griffin and his brother and sisters Arianne, Eric, and Erin returned to their lives on land just in time for school to start. They got a nasty shock this time, though, as Mr. and Mrs. Griffin informed them that someone had gotten a picture of one of them with a tail and had taken it to a newspaper. Within a few weeks, the paper was going to send someone down to verify the photo and investigate the claim. The only reason it had taken as long as it had was because the paper had other things that were more important to focus on and most people had believed it was a hoax. They finally agreed, though, which meant that the kids couldn't go see their real mother in the ocean until the incident was over. The kids knew this was a real problem since all of them got scaly when wet, generated electricity, stuck to things, even breathed underwater, all signs that they weren't human. That meant they'd have to be especially careful because the cameras were everywhere. If the cameras caught even the slightest hint that they might not be human, they were sunk and all of them knew it. Fortunately, their friends, girlfriends, and boyfriends were there to help them the whole way.

The kids went to school the next day, but kept an eye out for cameras and made sure they didn't do any fishy stuff in front of them. nothing happened that day or the next, making their media pursuers relax their guard. Then one day one of the cameramen saw Cody and his siblings talking to their mother and the next day the cameras were everywhere, especially near the ocean. The kids knew this meant that returning to the sea would be very dangerous until the cameras were gone, and they knew they had to get the cameras focused away from their real mother and themselves. Finally they came up with a plan that would be sure to divert the newspaper men's attention and discredit their photo at the same time, thereby convincing them that merpeople really were a myth after all.

Early the next morning Shawn went to see the newsmen with a photo of the kids' mermaid mother in which all you could see was her tail. The men were instantly interested and Shawn told them she was down in the harbor at that very moment. So they rushed down there and Shawn called his friends to let them know to initiate step two of the plan. By the time the men got down there, Sam was out in the water in a mermaid costume, floating on a life preserver and looking for all the world like a mermaid. The boss of the man who'd taken the original photo looked at his employee with absolute rage. "I can't believe you dragged me all the way down here for this! You're THROUGH at the paper! You hear me? THROUGH! You've brought me too many crackpot stories! This is the last straw! Tear up those photos! I don't ever want to hear another word about mermaids!" the boss shouted. They then stalked off toward their hotel and were soon out of sight. The cameras were gone within two days, just in time too, as the kids began to sprout their tails again. They were able to return to the ocean, knowing that no one would ever believe the story that merpeople were real ever again and they would never be exposed.


End file.
